Taking his own advice, Jack LaLanne does everything at a fever pitch. That goes for clean living, teasing his wife and railing against fast food and communism.
In Dallas to talk about fitness after age 50 to 2,000 people at a Senior Alliance/UniCARE program, television's longtime exercise authority, now 81, holds a spirited court in his hotel suite. He and Elaine LaLanne, his wife of 45 years, inspire even those in the room who are 50 years younger.
The morning began at daybreak with appearances on two local television shows and is continuing with a round of print interviews. The LaLannes mention they want to carve out a little afternoon time to visit Ken Cooper at his nearby Aerobics Center before they attend an evening reception.
This, their publicity woman says, shaking her head, comes after sitting up and chatting until 2 a.m. The couple show not even a hint of weariness.
Yeah, he's a little gray, but in the snug-fitting blue jumpsuit that shows off his trim, muscled limbs and his sparkling eyes, he could easily pass for 60.
"We're here to show these senior citizens they can live to be 100," Jack LaLanne says, punching the air with his fist. "They have to live in the moment, and forget whatever they've done in the past."
He charges into a short sermon on the miracles people work every day by making a commitment to regular exercise, healthful eating and finding new hobbies.
"It's a miracle when a fat person loses 50 or 60 pounds, and find everything improves - skin and hair texture, sex life, the mind," he says. "You can double your strength and double your energy at any age."
LaLanne's program for seniors focuses on working slowly into an exercise regimen. Starting with five-minute workouts, a novice exerciser can work steadily up to a 30-minute routine to be done three or four times a week.
Nobody has to rush out and join a gym, says LaLanne, who readily demonstrates with Elaine a plethora of exercises done on the floor with no equipment, and several others done with an armchair as a prop.
In a matter of five minutes, they perform an energetic series of exercises that work the upper arms, front, back and sides of thighs, the chest and shoulders, waistline and abdomen, as well as the buttocks - which Jack LaLanne calls "the rear bumper."
His own daily workout routine - which he changes every three weeks to keep it interesting and effective - begins in the gym about 5 a.m. His wife, a fit 70 herself, doesn't exercise before dawn.
"I roll out, and Elaine rolls over," Jack LaLanne says.
After an hour's workout with weights, resting just 10 seconds between sets, he gets in the pool for rapid, rigorous water aerobics. He admits his own program isn't for everyone.
"You can do a heck of a lot in a half-hour," he says. "But it's important to exercise vigorously, just like you gotta live life."
LaLanne says the wisest eating habits include four or five servings of raw vegetables daily, a lot of fresh fruit, some whole grain cereal or breads, and small servings of chicken, fish and turkey. He stresses the importance of a four-egg-white omelet, jazzed up with chopped raw veggies, seasonings and herbs.
The only alcohol LaLanne condones is the occasional glass or two of wine with a meal. He strongly recommends taking vitamin supplements to replace what alcohol, stress and pollution take away.
That Jack and Elaine LaLanne got together at all is surprising, as she admits to being a junk-food junkie when they met in San Francisco in 1951.
"I was 27 and eating bear claws and chocolate doughnuts," Elaine LaLanne says. "He told me, `The only good thing about a doughnut is the hole in the middle.' "
She recalls when, after a few dinner dates, he showed up at her home with a bag of healthful foods and cooked a nutritious meal for her. She has been a happy convert ever since.
On the subject of food, Jack LaLanne gets even more animated than usual.
"Breakfast," he says, "IS the most important meal of the day. Would you start off on a long car trip with an empty gas tank? Would you give your dog a cigarette, some coffee and a chocolate doughnut first thing in the morning?
"Yet all this garbage people are putting in their bodies is killing them."
Unexpectedly, this leads to a rousing discourse on the many things in pop culture he considers unhealthful and disgraceful.
"We gotta change the attitude of the public. The country is so easily brainwashed into consuming things - look at fast food, and rock stars and the grunge look," he says, sneering. "Yuck. It all makes me sick."
Then he's on a tangent, quoting the Bible and insisting that the Russians invented brainwashing when communist sympathies spread in the United States several decades ago.
Just as suddenly, he snaps back to the importance of exercise, concluding that what we have to do "is brainwash people today with good things."
When they're at home in Morro Bay, on the California coast, the LaLannes like to cook stir-fry meals, read anything they put their hands on, play golf and channel-surf on their satellite. Their favorite recent movies are "Forrest Gump" and "Mr. Holland's Opus."
The only thing Jack LaLanne isn't doing is planning another of his outlandish birthday feats; he's famous for having towed 2,000-pound boats while swimming underwater, handcuffed and shackled, on several birthdays, including numbers 60, 61, 65, 66 and 70.
Elaine LaLanne promises that even one more birthday feat means he'll be looking for a new roommate.
"You can print this," she says, wrapping an arm around his waist. "If he does any more birthday feats, I'm gonna divorce him."